Intel dents apps processor market

LONDON – Intel recorded a 0.2 percent share by unit shipments of the global smartphone applications processor market in the first half of 2012, up from zero previously, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Meanwhile, Qualcomm maintained market dominance with 48 percent revenue share.

Strategy Analytics also provided some much-needed good news for ST-Ericsson: Its NovaThor applications processors showed 28 percent sequential growth in 2Q12 to help ST-Ericsson register the highest quarterly shipments in over four years.

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Smartphone applications processors are clearly in demand, and the market' rising tide should be lifting all boats. Sales of smartphone applications processors reached $5.5 billion in the first half of 2012, up 61 percent from the first half of 2011, according to the Strategy Analytics' latest Handset Component Technologies service report.

Following Qualcomm in smartphone applications processor sales in the first half of the year were, in order, Samsung, MediaTek, Broadcom and Texas Instruments, respectively, according to the report.

MediaTek achieved 13-fold year-on-year growth as it addressed the low-to-mid range smartphone segment. Broadcom ranked number four in the first half of the year with the help of low-end Android smartphone design-wins at Samsung, according to the report.

"Qualcomm's early LTE modem leadership has helped the company to stay ahead of the competition," said Sravan Kundojjala, senior analyst with Strategy Analytics, in a statement.

Motorola has also announced a new Intel-based smartphone, for now available only in UK and later on probably the rest of Europe. It is called the Razr i. The equivalent model on the US market is the Razr M, which interestingly comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/02/razr-i-phones4u/

Well... I recall that in the late 90s when Intel introduced its own GPU called i740 during the era when the graphic card market was dominated by Voodoo, nVidia TNT, and ATI.
i740 was a big disappointment..., to me and some of my PC DYI friends back then. It was slow and so hot that you could probably cook an egg on it literally.
Back to the future, now, Ivy Bridge's HD4000 has come such a long way.
I am not saying that I blindly trust its future success in the mobile media processor field. My point here is that Intel as a company has the momentum of moving forward and drive its own innovations. I agree that it has already had a slow start and late. But Intel is not going to behave like some silicon companies that you have see up and gone in the past 20 years. Just need to be patient of what they come up with in the next decade.
By the way, for the record, I support AMD as well. I built a Llano PC from day one and love it! :)

I wonder if this isn't the beginning of a trend. I read this today:
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/09/11/nexphone-smartphone-project-that-becomes-a-full-pc/
If the future of smartphones is a device that can go from being a cell phone to being the CPU for a full-fledged PC, with large screen, mouse, and keyboard, then Intel's interest and participation makes a lot of strategic sense.
Watching this develop is all truly fascinating.

That's it, .02% of roughly a $11 Billion annual market for smartphone application processors. Wow that entire application categories revenue's doesn't even make up for one half the revenue potential of a typical Intel PC production full run.
Mike Bruzzone
Camp Marketing

Not bad, given that they only announced their entry into the market in January, and I believe the first smartphone with an Intel processor (Lenovo K800) shipped in May. Numbers for the second half of the year will be more telling.